There are times, occasionally, when someone comes up with an idea that just makes you say “But of course! Why didn’t anyone come up with that before?”. Softick Card Export II is, quite simply, one of those great ideas.
So, you have your Pocket PC which contains an SD Card and can connect to your PC via USB. Great ...and how do you access the card from the PC? Well, you install ActiveSync and transfer the data via the cradle or a sync ‘n’ charge cable - nice and easy. This is all well and good if you...
- have a copy of ActiveSync handy
- are allowed to install it (e.g. at work)
- don’t mind it taking an eternity to transfer anything remotely large
But what if you can’t use ActiveSync? If you have a USB SD card reader or a USB memory key handy then you’re ok but that’s yet another piece of equipment you have to lug around with you. This is where Card Export II comes in.
Card Export II is a simple little application which emulates the USB Mass Storage device and turns your PPC into a self installing USB SD card reader complete with built-in drivers. Basically, it converts your PPC into a USB memory key but with the advantage of you being able to swap cards too.
Once installed, a small red/orange ActiveSync-like icon appears on the task bar of the Today screen. Tapping this icon displays the following menu:
- Card Export - switches the software into Card mode, cards are mounted on the PC as removable disks.
- Active Sync - switches the software into ActiveSync mode, permitting normal synchronising to occur.
- Default Card - which displays a sub menu of all available SD devices in the device (including such things as the extended ROM if it has been exposed). Selecting one device or another admittedly seemed to have little effect on my device.
- Preferences... - displays the Preferences screen, see below.
- Register - only visible on unregistered versions, enables the registration key to be entered.
- About Card Export - displays the about screen containing the copyright and version information.
- Uninstall... - offers the option to uninstall the product.
The Preferences screen is not too complex, having just two tabs:
- Cards - This tab permits the user to set how many and which cards are exported by the software. Each card may be exported or not, set to read only or read/write and can have the MBR (master boot record) protected or not. It is also possible to assign the unit number for each exported card to alter the order in which they appear to the PC.
- Hardware - simply displays the processor family and a check box to enable or disable the Native Receive Routine.
Using the software is simplicity itself - to change mode, before connecting the device to the PC simply tap the icon and select the desired mode.
In ActiveSync mode, the icon goes yellow/green when connected and the device functions exactly as if Card Export were not there.
In Card Export mode, the icon changes to a little grey SD card image, which goes slightly blue when connected but inactive. ActiveSync on the PC is completely oblivious to the device when connected this way and therefore doesn’t need to be disabled.
Within moments of being connected to a USB enabled PC the software provides the necessary drivers for the PC to load and install the Mass Storage (Removable Disk) drives, just like a USB key. When the Card is being accessed from the PC the icon blinks green and/or red.
One minor inconvenience which I have noticed is that, when the cards are being exported, they are unavailable to the device. This isn’t a major problem but can be a bit of a nuisance when you want to run something which is on a card being exported.
One of the biggest criticisms that I hear about ActiveSync data transfers is the speed - they can take an eternity. To test the speed of Card Export , I selected a series of files on my PC (up to 400Mb in size) and transferred them to my 1Gb card via ActiveSync, Card Export and my SanDisk 8in1 card reader, I then transferred them back and recorded all the times, the results are below. These results are all based on USB2 under Windows XP, I ran them all three times and averaged the results.
|
ActiveSync |
Card Export |
Card Reader |
| Small (20 x 5.9Mb zip) |
13:58 |
4:18 |
0:49 |
| Medium (5 x 30.9Mb exe) |
20:27 |
5:27 |
1:01 |
| Large (1 x 208Mb avi) |
30:43 |
6:54 |
1:17 |
| Very Large (1 x 409Mb avi) |
Did not complete (<25%) after 15 minutes |
13:38 |
2:29 |
As can be seen, not surprisingly, the dedicated card reader is much faster than either of the other two methods. Nonetheless, Card Export still beat ActiveSync by a very considerable margin and, in the case of the larger movie files, was also for more reliable (translation: it worked!). In the case of the two avi movie files via ActiveSync, it was actually between one and three minutes before anything even started to happen - ActiveSync seemed to be checking the format for an unnecessary format conversion and was hammering the main disk all the time! In addition, I also noticed that the ActiveSync transfer would appear to reset and go back to the start a couple of times though I cannot think why.
If you only have the occasional need of a USB key, can’t use ActiveSync and/or don’t want to be encumbered by carrying or finding an SD card reader, then Card Export II is just what you need. If there were one thing I would change with the software it would be to remove the Uninstall... option from the menu. Not only is it inconvenient if you accidently hit it (it displays an “Uninstall Y/N?” dialog, but it also implies that you need to have the uninstall option readily available which is, of course, not so - you probably won't want to uninstall this software!
I think Card Export II is an excellent product with very few faults and well worth the current price of USD$14.95.
It is available on a wide range of Pocket PC devices - I've personally tested it on the XdaII (WM2003) and the XdaIIi (WM2003SE) and understand it can work on WM5 as well - plus other platforms too and may be evaluated at no charge for about two weeks.